Nunavut ex-priest’s lawyer alleges witnesses colluded against him

Crown asks judge to allow similar fact evidence; proceedings delayed until May 26

DAVID MURPHY

Defence lawyer Malcolm Kempt says if he needed to write a textbook about witness collusion, he would focus on the Eric Dejaeger trial.

In what might be a foreshadowing of his final arguments in the trial, Kempt said there is an “outright certainty” that complainants fixed their stories before they testified at the Belgian ex-priest’s trial at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit.

Dejaeger’s lawyer made the comments in court March 20 in response to a Crown application that seeks to allow similar fact evidence in the trial.

Similar fact evidence uses each complainant’s testimony to corroborate testimony made by other complainants.

Dejaeger faces 68 charges related to his time as a priest in Igloolik from 1978 to 1982, most of them sex-related crimes against children.

Kempt is opposing the Crown’s application, suggesting collusion between witnesses. He gave dozens of examples of interactions witnesses had before the trial began last November.